Miguel Angel Jimenez leading veteran pack

Miguel Angel Jimenez leading veteran pack

He certainly enjoyed two -- and probably all three -- on Saturday at Augusta National when he shot a tournament-low 6-under-par 66 that catapulted the 50-year-old Spaniard onto the front page of the leaderboard.

Jimenez became the third player over 50 to shoot 66 in a Masters, joining Ben Hogan in 1967 and Fred Couples in 2010.

"Minus six, you cannot complain," said Jimenez, who shaved 10 strokes off his round from Friday. "I played very well, very patient and feel very confident on the course."

Jimenez is one of six players 50 or older who made the cut. Couples, Vijay Singh, Bernhard Langer, Larry Mize and Sandy Lyle are the others.

"If you are 50, that doesn't mean you cannot play well," Jimenez said. "The main thing is that I'm doing what I like to do in my life, and I'm enjoying it completely."

Couples averaged 4 over par his last two Saturdays at Augusta, and he entered the 2014 third round with the goal of improving on that trend. He did. The 1992 champion shot a 73, which leaves him tied for 11th at 1 under.

"I'm not smart enough to know what 75, 77 and 73 averages, but it wasn't bad," Couples said. "It feels like when I came my first year, it's always exciting."

Langer is tied for 24th, Singh for 29th, Lyle for 46th, Mize for 50th.

Saturday serenade

University of Tennessee sophomore Oliver Goss walked off the 18th green with the gallery serenading him with "Happy Birthday."

Goss, who turned 20 yearold old Saturday, shot a 76 with two birdies and two double-bogeys.

"I got a couple hundred 'Happy Birthdays' from the crowd," said Goss, the 2013 U.S. Amateur runner-up. "I've got some Tennessee Volunteer fans, a lot of them actually. I feel a lot of the crowd is backing me and supporting me, which means a lot."

Two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw announced Saturday that the 2015 tournament will be his final time in the field.

Crenshaw, 62, first played in the Masters in 1972 as an amateur and won in 1984 and 1985. He has missed the cut seven straight times and in 15 of the last 17 tournaments.

"I've thought about it for a long time," he said on the GolfChannel. "A lot of times I thought that I could have stepped down earlier. It is hard, very hard. But I have been so fortunate. I have to look at the good things that have happened.

"I have to pull over and watch. I'm very resigned to being an encourager for everybody as much as I can."

Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.